Make the Work You Want to Get Hired For | Bailen Estrada

How do you get hired to make the kind of work you’ve never been hired to make?

You make it yourself.

At just 22 years old, director Bailen Estrada is already building an impressive commercial career, and spec work has played a huge role in getting him there.

In Episode 17 of The Commercial Director’s Podcast, Bailen joins Evan Swinehart to talk about discovering filmmaking as a kid in the Midwest, skipping film school, moving to Los Angeles, and teaching himself the commercial directing business in real time.

We dig into his HOKA and Salomon spec projects, why one great piece of work usually isn’t enough, how he strategically released his Salomon spot, and how that work eventually helped lead to representation and bigger commercial opportunities.

Then we break down Bailen’s Sin City-inspired betting commercial shot in Romania. We get into green screen, practical sets, VFX, CGI, graphic-novel lighting, shooting internationally, collaborating with a Romanian crew and VFX team, and how Bailen approached building such a heavily stylized world.

We also talk treatments, AI, inspiration, the awkward middle stage of building a directing career and why Bailen carries an old Russian stopwatch on set.